Taking a Break

As we are packing up to move to So Cal... wait did I mention we are moving on Thursday?!?! LOOOOOOOOONG STORY {will tell it a different day}!! So in these last few and fast days of packing, I have never been more physically exhausted!! Seriously, the last time I was this tired was when I had mono when I was 13 years old, that was miserable! Given this new lost of energy, I have limited my time to the computer and I am here to announce I will be taking a break until I can get my feet back on the road. So I am sorry I won't be looking on anyone's blog or writing anything for quite some time. Maybe when I feel like it, I can actually catch my breath and I will update you on this hectic time of our lives.

...and in case I don't see ya... good morning, good afternoon, and good evening!!

WE'RE MOOOOOVING FOOLS!!!

We are moving out of the state of Utah!!

The story goes like this... on May 3rd we found out that Gian got accepted into a law school all the way in Rhode Island. That is about 2,520 miles away from here. We got this HUGE packet in the mail, and I could barely wait for Gian to come home to open it. We read out loud together, "CONGRATULATIONS!!!!" I may or may not have done a heel click and victory dance... and we were beyond excited. For eight days we started to plan our lives around Rhode Island, what it would be like if we moved there, what great food we would eat, the road trip and visiting Chicago. I even started to Google map everything. It is a beautiful campus and I was excited to adventure into a place I had never been before. I have never been to the east coast and I was thrilled to take that new adventure with my little family, the people I love the most in this world. But the thought of being so far away from both our families began to make my stomach turn and stimulated anxiety.

We gave our landlord notice saying no matter what we will be moving in August. However, we were not set on Rhode Island. We were waiting to hear back from three other schools. Gian and I talked about how the only thing that would take us away from Rhode Island would be this school in Orange County, California. You see, while we were in California for Disneyland in February, Gian came to me and said, "There is this school in Orange County that I want to apply too. I know it is really small, but I have a really good feeling about it and I want to go tour the campus while we are here." So of course I supported him because it is what he wanted and why would I ever oppose? Especially that exact location in California.

So on May 11th, just eight days after the Rhode Island acceptance letter, Gian got a email from this same school in OC, CA. We thought we could take a few days to make our decision, but this letter came with all sorts of requirements and obligations. We had to give a nonrefundable deposit and Gian would have to start school June 11th. So you see why it was time sensitive decision right?!?

AAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! How could we possibly make a decision with so many strings attached in a timely manner? I started to think logically and gave Gian a list a mile long of why this might not be the best decision and then followed with "...but just because it isn't logical doesn't mean it isn't the right decision!!!"

So we made a phone call to my mom and she said she will do what ever it takes to keep us away from Rhode Island. ahhahahahaha!! She said she just didn't feel good about it and couldn't have us so far away. Solutions started to manifest, we felt soooooooooooo good about our decision and the logical part started to diminish. So with all that comfort and peace we chose Whittier Law School in Orange County, CA just two hours after receiving the email! We knew back in February it was the right choice for us so it was easy to remember why we wanted it.

Here is the plan.... in three short and rapidly fast weeks we will pack up and move completely out of Utah. Ekemona and I will go live in my parent's house in Idaho with my sister, Brittany, for however long needed, while Gian goes and stays with some friends/family in the area to start school and search for apartments and possibly jobs. This plan of moving is subject to change... there are a lot of "if's" and "what about's" that we still need to straighten out.

You guys, we are sooooooooooooo so so so excited!!! I could cry right now!! The best part is we will be living 8 miles from Disneyland and we will be close to the ocean {both my dreams are coming true}. I can barely hold back all of this joy!! I am soooooooo proud of Gian for all his hard work and dedication and for knowing what is right for our family and following through with those thoughts and feelings. Every now and then one of us will sigh with excitement and burst out a comment about how relieved and ecstatic we are.

And this is how I like to imagine we will look truckin'  660 miles with everything we own!! I think it looks quite glamours don't you?!?!

Happy Mother's Day!!

Happy Mother's Day to all you women out there!!

I want to deticate this post to my favorite mother I have ever known Kathy K., my mommy!! I love you sooooooooooooooo so so so so so so much mom!!! You are the most amazing, talented, go-getter, driven, beautiful, funny, happy, brilliantly smart, independent, supportive, unconditional and strongest woman I have ever know. You are a great example and gave me the best childhood I could have ever asked for!! Thank you for being there for me all the times I needed you especially when I come to you in hysterical tears not knowing what to do!!! You are the best and have given us the best life ever!!

P.S. in the picture below, I have no idea who the girl on the far right is....

I love you forever, I like you for always as long as I'm living my mommy you'll be!! 

My Nightmare!!

.::Viral Friday::.

Hey guess what... I am doing a .::Viral Friday::. for the first time in a very long time. Are you excited about this? I don't know what my deal has been, but I seriously never get on my computer these days. It's a rare occasion when I do.

Earlier this week I had this eight legged beast trapped in a cup. If I could begin to find the words to describe my anxiety around bugs then I would.... but I seriously can't even compare it to anything or articulate it in a way that would make you understand. All I can tell you is I truly believe all creepy crawlers {exception for butterflies, caterpillars, lady bugs, rolly pollies, dragonflies, fireflies, crickets and bees [because they make honey]} are a pure translation and physical evidence of HELL!!! I'm not even kidding. Those things do not represent anything that is holy and delightful and pleasant... let alone magical!!! They are the spawns of Satan, they are the life from the underground world and they are here to torment and corrupt all mankind. I'm 100% being real right now!! Not over dramatizing anything!! I BLOODY HATE BUGS!!! 

With that said I have found two videos that capture my exact fear of what I think will happen every time I get close to a spider. EVER.FREAKING.TIME!!! 

Now it is hard to see it in the video above... but the evil possessed creature jumps!! He jumps at the man!!! He jumps and attacks him with those furry hairy ugly eight legs of his and multiple eyes and fangs!!! Why do people like vampires? I HATE FANGS!! So now watch the video below for more footage...

Why does he act like spiders are cool? Let's all be honest here... it is no one's fantasy to have spiders crawl on their body. NO ONE!!! I say... that's what you get when you try to befriend all that is evil and dark on this earth!

Now that my paranoia has kicked in and I feel like I have bugs all over me... let's end this delightful Friday with some laughter and joy!!

I wish I was as cool and hipster as these kids!! They seriously make me smile!!! They make it seem like spiders never even exist ahahha. 

THANK YOU, COME AGAIN

"Somebody that I used to know"

Vision Board

Fun random fact... Did you know the author of The Secret and my mother were co-creators? Yep... long before Ryonda Byrne ever wrote the book, she and my mom worked together doing trainings all about this stuff. Then one day they went their separate ways, one continued to help people on a personal level and the other wrote a book and appeared on Oprah. I always said, you are lucky to have ever met my mom because of her infinite wisdom and incredible talent.

A part of The Secret {and the way we were raised} was to create a vision board. A vision board is something you create, much like a collage, that represents the things you would like to manifest in your life. The theory of how it works is to place your thoughts and emotions into a constant fluid movement on an unconscious and conscious level. Through that it will eventually manifest.

I honestly truly believe that whatever you put out in the universe is what you will receive. Sounds like hocus pocus huh? Seriously though.... there is something very powerful about commitments and the power to dream. I also believe that your thoughts become emotions, that become actions, and actions are verbs... it is movement, a flow, a constant progression. I also believe that we are constantly making decisions on a conscious and unconscious level. Whether we can acknowledge that or not, 90% of everything in our life stems back from our decisions. That is the beauty and power of our free agency!

The purpose of a vision board is to place your desires and dreams into a space that will allow us to make it happen. On an unconscious level we create these things to happen. We unconsciously put ourselves in a place of making decisions constantly. There are some rules to making vision boards because the brain is such a powerful thing, you must be careful of the words you place around the vision board and what the pictures may symbolize for you.

For example, I will share with you a vision board I made in 2008. The underlined ones are the ones that manifested {Please note that these numbers are only for your reference. I did not actually put them on my board}

1). Become a mother 2). Own a dog 3). Bake more 4). make good money 

5). Own a house 6). Get married 7). Travel 8). Go through the temple

So as you may see, half of these things manifested for me. I even made one previous to this where I had a Vera Wang dress on a fitting form... I crossed out Vera's name and wrote mine. A year later I got a job on the design team of Maggie Sottero. That was not my intention when I made the vision board, it was to own and create my own bridal line, but I am still astonished and blessed to have had it manifest in a different way.

So here are the tricks and rules in order to make your vision board a success.

There are three topics you should focus on:
1). Heath/Recreation
2). Work/Money/Career
3). Personal/Relationships/Spirituality

You can write down the things you would like to accomplish in these areas. Then, find pictures that represent those thoughts and emotions to you. Keep in mind, the less words the easier i.e. travel, get a dog, make money.... etc,

There are some basic tips you need to keep in mind so things stay in a positive mind set. It is very important that you follow these guidelines because it can shift or change your mood or thoughts around the board and it is vital to the ultimate outcome.

Tips:
- Must be in present tense.
- No negative words should associate to the board.
- Use words like; "I choose", "I am", "I want", "I will" when making your list or when you view the images that represent your board.
- "As if it were so"
- No goals, never make goals because it goes into the unconscious mind. i.e. I want to weigh 125lbs, instead, find a picture of your ideal figure.... and if your like me, my sister, or my roommate, you will cut out a picture of your face and place it on that image (for the record, mine was Cinderella because I wanted to work at Disneyland... it always adds a nice sense of humor to it as well)
- Leave space so other things can fill in.
- Once it is all complete, hang it in a place you will see it frequently throughout the day.

Here is what my current board looks like...

1). I will own my own line 2). I want to own a house 3). I want to make a good amount of money

 4). I want to have a healthy, happy, peaceful, and loving family with more children 5). I want to sew 
more and do more crafts {thank you to Diana for letting me use her image of a sewing machine!}
6). I want to work back at Disneyland 7). I will own a dog

 Close up of #1... yes I put my face over the designer's! 

To me, it symbolizes it's my own line.

If you haven't read or seen The Secret I strongly encourage you to do so. It is awesome! Go on, create amazing things in your life! If you don't believe me then just make one for yourself and let me know what happens a year later.

Poop Water

TMI?!?!

Let me cut to the chase.... this kid poops in the bath 100% of the time. Not like ohhh it's right after meals, or yep it's that time of day again, or only now and then. NOOOOOOOOOOOO my little nugget loves to leave nuggets in the bath EVERY.SINGLE.TIME!!!

By the eighth round I was so mad. I was going to rip out my hair because that means I have to sanitize EVERYTHING which can turn into quite the production, and at times the poop was transfered into new regions of the house, and then I wanted to kill someone! The funniest part about it is, after he has completed his task he screams bloody murder as if he was in serious pain. He can't stand being in the poop water {I don't blame him}. Then the production begins. That means cleaning the bathtub and then drawing another bath because we never even got to the soap bubbly part.

Then it dawned on me.... this kid knows what his body is doing, and he knows it is icky. To me it shows the signs of him becoming aware of his bowel movements. Now don't go thinking I am about to potty train him next week because this has been going on for over a month, not to mention he just barely turned 18 months, but I realized that this could be a great learning opportunity. So now when I see his face make that specific "poop face" I place him on top of the toilet, or when it's time to grab him out of the tub I stopped rolling my eyes and making an obnoxious sigh, but instead I decided to say in a cheerful positive way, "YOU POOPED!!!" or "That is poop... one day you will poop in the potty where mommy and daddy go,"  in hopes that this will not create any negative emotions around the process of such a natural thing. Also, I secretly hope that in someway it leaves an impression and when we do introduce potty training it may make the process a whole lot easier.... like I said, I HOPE!!!

What You Have Missed

Since I have been far far away in another land... there was a lot that happened... here is the run down... these are not in any order!!

1). My step mom died... it was far more emotional then I thought it would be. It was very peaceful and beautiful and you could feel her joy and peacefulness at the service.

2). I have realized that I am trying to control too many things in my life. I keep telling the universe and God what I will and will not do. More details to come....

3). There was Easter. It was awesome!!

4). Went to Idaho for a week and celebrated my nephew's 4th birthday... Spidey Man style!

5). I never go on Pinterest, but when I do to get one image.... I am suckered in for at least an hour... CURSE YOU PINTEREST!!!

6). I tried out two new nail polishes... loved them, but they turned my nails YELLOW after I removed the polish.... so I will not be continuing with the trend!

7). Ekemona has been teething 6 bloody teeth, two of which have cut, and 4/6 are molars. SHOOT ME!! Molars are the worst thing that could ever happen to a toddler!

8). Ekemona is officially 18 months old!

9). Had a dream my sister, Brittany, was pregnant and her due date was October 29.... She really is pregnant and her due date is November 6. Creepy part is, her babies usually come a week early which will be Oct 29!!! I like to call myself the Baby Whisperer! Every single one of Brittany's pregnancies I have had dreams about previous to her announcement.... so I am never really shocked!

10). I submitted my "Tears of Joy" video to America's Funniest Videos in hopes to win $10,000... better yet $100,000!!! ahahahaha Seriously!!! I think if we won I would cry harder then I did in that video. Please keep your fingers crossed that we will potentially win some money! "SHOW ME THE MUNNAH!!!" Seriously though... I also accept prayers!

Well I think that is it! Now here are pictures of some of the things listed above... enjoy!

We threw my step mom's ashes in the Provo River in Heber, her favorite place to fish.

We also threw roses and said a few good words about her. 

Since all three of us sisters where here in Utah for the funeral, we decided to have a giant sleepover at McCall's to process all our emotions. It was nice too that Easter was the next day. My mom decided to fly in last minute in fear of missing out on all the fun. This is all of us dying eggs.

Here is the grand master piece! All of our eggs combined.

Easter morning 7am!! Too early!! PS Can you see Ekemona just about to burst with excitement? This is what he does every single time he get super happy... asian face + screaming + flailing arms = a happy Haolepino!

Eke found his basket

All the cousins except for Ella on Easter morning. 

I woke up sharing a pillow with this furry lady! I love Lola!!

At church!

Ekemona in his Sunday Best for Easter morning. 

Easter Egg Hunt! 

He loved putting the eggs in the basket and loved the chocolate even more! Heaven on earth for this nugget!

Hunty Turning the Big 4!!! 

Blizzard Ice Cream Cake from Dairy Queen pretty freaking good! This little dude loves everything Spider Man... except for the shirt I got him bahahahhahaha!! Aunty Fail!

Thank you for catching up with me/us!!!

Elevator Prank

Yo. It's your lucky day... I have done two weeks in a row of Viral Friday while McKinley is being a slacker. I saw this video earlier this week. Disregard the the fact that what happens in the video has absolutely nothing to do with the product. It's still a hilarious elevator prank.



You gotta love the people that just get into it with the people singing. I always love the people who are like, "WTF? What the heck is going on?"

Well, hope you have a good weekend. Peace out fools.

Happy Viral Friday.

Spring Monogram Door Hanger

Have I shown you my newest and greatest creation? WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAT?!?! It may be my personal all time favorite...

TAAAAAAAAAAA DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!

Isn't she a beaut? 

I originally was going to make this one.... 

{via Pinterest}

But I was going to use yarn and make it more springy. When I arrived at the craft store, I saw this spool of moss... artificial moss of course. I must say I like them both, but the moss is so whimsical to me!!!

Anyways, I will tell you how to make it without any picutres because it's truly that easy....

What you will need:

-Ribbon 1.5 yards {cut into twos}

-Wooden block letter

-Hot glue gun and glue

-Artificial moss 

- Flowers or whatever you like for your finishing touches
-Scissors

How to:

1). Measure out the moss you will need to cover your letter and cut only the length needed to cover the whole letter. Do not worry about width... that comes later.

2). Once your pieces are ready, outline a small section of the letter at a time {i.e. I did each leg of the M at a time so the glue doesn't dry too fast}. Place moss over selected area  of wood make sure that the moss is over lapping and press down to apply pressure. 

3). Continue steps until the letter is fully covered... it may lose its shape by this point and look like a blanket of moss.

4). Cut away excess moss while using the wooden letter as your guide.  {Depending on your moss you may need hardcore fabric scissors to cut through it}

5). You may want to add moss blend in the lines. Just take natural looking pieces and hot glue them in the spots that are needing a more natural look.

6). Add your decoration, then place moss over it to blend it in as well while using a hot glue gun to accomplish the look.

7). to attach ribbon on the back, I used the hole where nails or thumb tacks go. I filled it up with hot glue and rolled the pieced of ribbon. Once the glue secured the ribbon well enough, I used more glue to seal the ribbon into place. {see picture below}

8). Make a perfect bow and you are ready to hang!!

I hope you have enjoyed this tutorial... maybe it will inspire you to do something else... something I never ever even heard of! Have fun! 

ALOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHA!!

Ohhh HEY THERE!!!

What? Yes I did fall off the face of the WWW universe. Sorry for the inconvenience!!

So I may or may not be a bipolar blogger. Sometimes you get 17 posts a month sometimes you get 3. BE GRATEFUL PEOPLE!!! ahhaha Just kidding, but seriously I needed the break! The feeling of needing to get caught up on everything is very overwhelming and I like to keep my time, energy, and emotions focused on family, and let me tell you... my family really needed it. I REALLY NEEDED IT! So if you noticed I haven't left a comment on your blog for a while it's not because I don't care and love you anymore, because I still really truly do.... it's just me being a mom, wife, sister, daughter, aunt, teacher, beauty queen abahhahahahahahah OK, OK, OK I just had to add that one in there!!! hahahahahah See I knew you missed me.... ahhaha OK FINE!!! I'm done with the jokes!

Just know I blog because I love it, and when I don't it's because I don't love it, in that time and moment... and in due time I'll get back into the swing of things...  Kapeesh?!?!

XoXo,
McKinley